The results are in: BI Trends for 2013

In last month's poll, we asked which business intelligence (BI) trends you were watching for in 2013. Let's take a look at what you said.

Mobile access is a BI priority

Over a quarter of you voted for mobile access to BI applications, with tablet access ranking first with 16.7% of the vote and smartphone access ranking fourth with 11.7% of the vote. You're not alone in believing mobile BI is about to take off - according to the 2012 Wisdom of Crowds Mobile Business Intelligence Market Study published by Dresner Advisory Services, many users indicated aggressive plans for adopting mobile BI through 2015.

Heads still in the cloud

I think that cloud BI often gets lost in all the hype surrounding mobile BI, but since there's room for both, I won't complain too much. Cloud BI, however, has one major hurdle to clear before wide-spread adoption will ensue. According to a study published by Citrix, many of us are still in the dark on what the cloud is all about. One troubling statistic that came from this study is that 95% of respondents claimed they had never used the cloud when, in fact, they had used the cloud (eg: online banking, social networks, shopping). Cloud adoption cannot happen in the dark, so it's time to start educating folks on how the cloud is already being used and how it can help their business. The key is to describe the cloud in simple, easy to understand language.

Don't get squished by big data

If big data isn't on your radar in 2013, then you might find yourself off course sooner than later. This term is receiving a lot of hype within the industry, and that hype is well-deserved. We are generating and collecting an incredible amount of data every single day and big data is about figuring out: a) how to effectively collect that data, b) what to do with that data, and c) how to make that data relevant and meaningful. The most important thing about big data is to remember that even though there is more data, the purpose is still to turn that data into knowledge.

BI smorgasbord

BI isn't being driven by any single trend. Instead, it is being driven by users (like you) that see the big picture. And the picture being drawn is one where BI is accessible (mobile, cloud), useful (big data, real-time data), and easy (social features, self-service, consumerization).